Week 1
Hey guys, I've just finished my first week of uni
Monday:
I got up early and spent about six hours in a study room within my building going through the basics of two of my units - the anatomy and the communication units. It was really great to make a lot of progress early in the week (by the end of the day I was about three quarters through both), particularly as I knew I was going to have a busy week.
Tuesday:
I finished off the modules, picked up my placement shirt and went to the doctors so they could give me a slip to get a blood test.
At 3, I had an online class for the anatomy unit. It went for two hours, and although it took a bit to figure out how to get into the class, once I did, I found the class really engaging. I did online lessons in year 12, so I had a bit of experience with how that sort of thing tends to run and it was fairly similar, which was great. Apparently I used to wrong browser to open it though, because in the last twenty minutes sound cut off for me and me only. I had to download Firefox for it to work but by then I'd missed the rest of it, so I ended up watching the last bit of the recording instead.
Wednesday:
I had my first in-person class at 10 on the waterfront campus, so I took the shuttle bus. I knew where my room was, so it was fairly easy to get to. The class was quite full. I don't think there were many empty seats, if any.
The class was for my occupational therapy unit, and it was great to get a better outline for this unit as not much had been uploaded onto the site at that time.
I had a seminar at 1, and there were a lot less people, thankfully! Going through more basics - I think all my units really wanted to ease us into their content, which I appreciated, but it was almost like too easy, because I know it'll only get harder from here on out haha.
I took the shuttle bus home and then did some more reading before I had an online class for the commutation class from 5-7.
Before that though, between the seminar and class, I had a couple of hours to kill. I actually ended up at Deakins study abroad office. I've never considered myself one for travel, I've never been out of Victoria after all, but it had been on my mind what it would be like to study for a couple of weeks in some place like Scotland or Ireland. They didn't have anything specifically like that, particularly for health degrees, but they had a couple for business related units. As I want to eventually open my own clinic, I thought maybe for my two electives next year, I could take a couple of business units overseas instead. Still not too sure. Money is obviously an issue, but I'd have a year and a half to prep, so it might be an option if I'm careful, and they said there were plenty of grants available to help.
Whilst I was there, the person I spoke with also mentioned a program called Hacker. I don't know much about it, but apparently it's over in Singapore and they give a bit of guidance to entrepreneurs wanting to start small businesses. It's overly priced, but again, there are possible grants that can cover up to more than half of the costs. I'm a little torn, as on one hand, I don't exactly consider myself an entrepreneur and by no means have any grand visionary ideas but on the other hand, I'd really love the opportunity to learn more about running a business so I can transfer that experience to when I open a clinic of my own.
Don't know what I'll do, or if I'll be able to do either (certainly won't be happening any time soon anyway), but its been great to consider it as I hadn't previously given much thought to going overseas, let alone going overseas in a constructive way.
Thursday:
Wednesday had left me feeling sore and very tired, but Thursday was crazy.
I had a practical at 8 (which I had only been notified of on Wednesday evening). Previously, they had said to block out times between 9 and 5, so I wasn't expecting an 8am prac.
So, after around two hours sleep, I woke up at 4:30. It took a bit longer than normal to do my normal stretches that I have to do to get out of bed when my arthritis is playing up, and by the time I'd hobbled around, gotten dressed, packed the last of my things and made it down to the bus stop, the sun still hadn't risen.
I caught the 6:45 bus, as the next bus would've only given me five minutes to get to class otherwise, and the room was in the far corner up the very top, so that wasn't going to happen. And I was not getting up that early only to be late
And, this is very pathetic, I saw my first sunrise on a bus. Lmao.
The practical went for 2.5 hours, and I yawned through most of it. The tutor made us do YMCA in a circle because we were too quiet. That was mortifying, but it worked because everyone starting responding to her questions from then on.
Then I went to the bathroom to chang (I had to wear my Deakin polo shirt to the practical) because it was 30 degrees and those tops are really uncomfortable.
I walked to the post office to finish off my working with children's check, then I got the blood test and then headed to centrelink and waited there for two hours. Called a taxi to take me back to campus because I physically wouldn't have made it there, my back and ankles were killing me, and I didn't fancy hanging around Centrelink until my flare up backed off.
Got back on the shuttle bus, walked ten minutes back to my room and promptly died. I'm kidding, I still had work to do as my third unit had finally released their week 1 content.
My Rheumatologist called and she put me up to 20mg. Need another blood test in a month and then she will decide if I need to go on anything else as well. The script wasn't going to get here in time for my next dose, so mum picked it up and express posted it to me, thankfully.
Spent 2.5 hours cooking because I was so tired that everything that I did took much longer than normal. Didn't get to sleep until 2am because no matter how tired I was, I couldn't sleep. I don't know if it was the pain, or I got overtired or both, but I didn't appreciate whatever it was. Sorry to complain, it wasn't a very good day for my haha.
Friday:
Had to wake up early for a seminar at 9am. Yay! After the lack of sleep I've had the last couple of days, I'm sorry if this makes no sense haha.
After that, I finished off a couple of small things that I still hadn't done. I tidied up my room and started three folders for each of my units, picked up my shopping (just small easy things to keep my body moving so it wouldn't seize up entirely).
I want to type up and organise my notes, but haven't had the time. I'm not in a rush, the fact that I've gotten through this week having done as much as I have, for me, is an absolute miracle.
I received my script and had to call about four different chemists to see if they had it in stock or if they would order it in for me. None of them had it and most of them refused to order it in or were confused as to what it was. The last person I called was lovely and said he could do it for me, but to be sure that I came to collect it. He understood that I wasn't able to get down there to give my script (as they normally like you to do before they order anything in) because I wasn't well. Unfortunately, this chemist wasn't in walking distance like the other chemists I called, so if I still feel like this come Monday, I'll probably have to waste money on another taxi to get it.
Oh, and I spent two hours on the phone to Centrelink this morning. The guy on the phone was great, and apparently everything the person I'd seen the previous day at Centrelink had touched on my file was coded wrong. The guy on the phone joked that the only things he didn't have to correct was my name and birthdate.
So, after sorting all that out, I've finally got rent assistance on the way, and I no longer have to report and see a job agency, which will make life easier. And also, the Centrelink guy I saw in person put on my file that I had received a 7500 scholarship - though I will go on to receive this in parts throughout the year, the way he put it on the system meant that Centrelink thought I had 7500 in my account right now, which was going to definitely affect my payments. So glad I called to double check. Some of the thing the guy on Thursday was saying just didn't add up and I just wanted to make sure that I didn't have any more issues with it.
The guy on the phone also asked if I wanted a student support scholarship and as I'm fairly low on money right now (I've been living on my measly savings as without rent assistance I've had around $25 a week each pay once I take out my rent) so that's also a major relief. It will come in well before my scholarship money - which I was trying to hold out for - so I'm less worried about getting through.
Overall, I made progress in the beginning of the week and struggled from Wednesday onwards. I know next week is going to be a lot easier even though I'll probably have more content to go through because I won't need to do as much running around. I do have to go the chemist and see the nurse for my blood test results, but I've got no prac on Thursday this week so I can spread the workload out more evenly and take some of the pressure off
I'm planning on taking it really easy on the weekend, but my body is flaring up so bad that I don't know if I'm even going to be able to relax. This is what I was afraid of before I started. I can only hope that now that I don't have to do as much running around, I will get to a place where I can cope.
On another note. I've almost ran out of toilet paper and I can't order any online as they no longer even have the icon for me to try to add it to my shopping order. Wish me luck.
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Topic: Never Give Up - a university journey journal (Read 24874 times)